ANNE FRANK'S DIARY - Animated feature film (English version)

ANNE FRANK'S DIARY - Animated feature film (English version) 

🎬 Movie: Train Dreams (transcript)

Train Dreams is a novella by Denis Johnson that explores themes of a vanishing American way of life, the grandeur of nature, and the complexities of a life lived at the frontier of the early 20th century. It follows the life of Robert Grainier, a humble railroad worker, and reflects on the profound, often grief-stricken, beauty of a world being overtaken by modernization and the personal tragedies that shape a life. The book questions the cost of civilization and reflects on the mystery of existence itself. 

While the novella is a meditative, non-linear epic covering an entire life in under 120 pages, the film necessarily translates this "woolly" and strange text into a more direct, visual narrative.  

Official Trailer

Graphic Novel: Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook

 

🎬 Don't Be A Sucker (1947)

“In this country we have no ‘other people’. We are American people, all of us.”

🌀 Letitia James issues a statement following her indictment by Trump’s DOJ

Letitia James issues a statement following her indictment by Trump’s DOJ: “This is nothing more than a continuation of Trump’s desperate weaponization of our justice system… these charges are baseless, his only goal is political retribution. I am not fearful. I am fearless.”

 

Letitia James issues a statement following her indictment by Trump’s DOJ: “This is nothing more than a continuation of Trump’s desperate weaponization of our justice system… these charges are baseless, his only goal is political retribution. I am not fearful. I am fearless.”
byu/NewSlinger inlaw

👨🏻‍⚖️⚖ Yick Wo v. Hopkins decided on May 10, 1886

Due process: The landmark Supreme Court case Yick Wo v. Hopkins decided on May 10, 1886. In this case, the court unanimously ruled that a seemingly neutral law enforced with discriminatory intent violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 

Background of the case 

> The San Francisco ordinance: In 1880, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance requiring laundries in wooden buildings to obtain a permit to operate. The law itself did not mention race. 

>Discriminatory enforcement: Though the law appeared neutral, it was enforced with a strong discriminatory bias against Chinese immigrants. Of the 320 laundries in wooden buildings, roughly 240 were owned by Chinese immigrants. The Board of Supervisors denied permits to nearly all Chinese applicants but granted them to almost all non-Chinese applicants. 

>Yick Wo's resistance: Yick Wo (whose name was Lee Yick) was a Chinese immigrant who had operated his laundry for 22 years. When he was denied a permit, he continued to operate and was fined and imprisoned by Sheriff Peter Hopkins for refusing to pay. 

 The Supreme Court's ruling 

 Yick Wo petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, and the case eventually reached the Supreme Court. The court ruled unanimously in his favor, with the opinion written by Justice Stanley Matthews. 

>The court found that even if a law is impartial on its face, "if it is applied and administered by public authority with an evil eye and an unequal hand," it is unconstitutional. 

>The decision established that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to all persons within U.S. jurisdiction, regardless of their race or nationality, not just to U.S. citizens. 

>The court concluded that the San Francisco ordinance, as it was enforced, was an illegal discrimination based on hostility toward the Chinese. 

Significance 

The Yick Wo decision was a critical step in using the Fourteenth Amendment to prevent discriminatory practices by the government. However, the precedent was later undermined by cases like Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which established the "separate but equal" doctrine. Still, the Yick Wo ruling has been cited in later civil rights cases for its core principle that laws must be applied equally to all people.

 

🎬 What makes us American - The U.S. Constitution